Union and political leaders propose labor-business
alliance to rebuild nation’s crumbling infrastructure
Citing crumbling bridges, roads, wa-
terways, rails and ports, AFL-CIO Pres-
ident John Sweeney proposed labor and
business form a joint alliance to push a
comprehensive long-term plan to re-
build the nation’s infrastructure.
Closing a national infrastructure con-
ference at his alma mater, Iona College
in New Rochelle, N.Y., on Feb. 19,
Sweeney said he would be willing to set
up such a joint alliance with the Cham-
ber of Commerce, the National Associ-
ations of Manufacturers, and others.
If such a long-term rebuilding plan,
with government-backed financing for
projects, passed Congress and was
signed by the next president, “managers
of the $5 trillion now in our union bene-
fit funds (would) seriously consider in-
frastructure capital investments, and I
know it would have the same effect on
Annual Faith-Labor
Breakfast set for
Wednesday, March 12
The sixth annual Faith-Labor Break-
fast will be held Wednesday, March 12,
starting at 7:45 a.m. at Highland Chris-
tian Center, 7600 N.E. Glisan St., Port-
land.
The annual event is co-sponsored by
the Portland Chapter of Jobs with Jus-
tice, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon,
the Northwest Oregon Labor Council
and Oregon Farmworkers Ministries.
All clergy, lay leaders and trade
unionists are invited to attend.
Cost for breakfast is $7.
For more information, call 503-236-
5573.
private capital,” Sweeney said.
“We all have a stake in this — every
one of us — and we all have different
motives for wanting action,” Sweeney
continued. “For the AFL-CIO, it’s good
jobs. For others, it is something differ-
ent. We all depend on our infrastructure
to keep our families and our communi-
ties healthy, comfortable and safe, and
to keep our country moving. We should
be able to put some of our parochial
concerns aside and come together be-
hind a comprehensive long-range infra-
structure plan.”
A day later in Portland, Oregon Con-
gressman Earl Blumenauer, a member
of the House Ways and Means Commit-
tee, met with a dozen construction union
leaders to get their ideas on what a na-
tional plan to rebuild infrastructure
might look like.
He told them he has been working
with Speaker of the House Nancy
Pelosi, (D-Calif.), and has talked to
more than 240 stakeholders (a diverse
group ranging from contractors and en-
vironmentalists to truckers and transit
workers) to raise the profile for a na-
tional infrastructure plan.
“This is going to part of the Democ-
ratic program this year and next,” he
emphasized. “China is spending 9 per-
cent of its gross domestic product on in-
frastructure. India is spending 4 percent
of its GDP. The United States spent less
than 1 percent. We are falling further
and further behind our global competi-
tors.”
The Iona College conference was di-
verse, too, bringing together unions,
business, government and academic
leaders to explore the hows and whys of
revitalizing the economy by rebuilding
Labor groups to
participate in anti-
war rally March 15
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its infrastructure.
“We know that investing in our own
infrastructure will produce prosperity. It
will put people to work . . . But there has
to be a will to do this. It is hard work to
build consensus,” said Ron DeFeo,
CEO of heavy equipment manufacturer
Terex, Corp., which sponsored the con-
ference.
The U.S. Department of Transporta-
tion estimates that every $1 billion in-
vested in transportation infrastructure
generates $2 billion in economic activ-
ity. Most estimates also say that every
billion dollars spent on infrastructure
creates between 40,000 and 50,000 jobs.
“In simplistic terms, what we lack is
any sort of long-range comprehensive
plan – any sort of overall strategy” that
would cover years of projects and bil-
lions of dollars in construction, Sweeney
said.
But Sweeney insists it will take a
new administration in Washington,
D.C., before any significant action is
taken, because for seven years the Bush
Administration has refused to consider
using infrastructure spending as a job-
creation vehicle.
During last January’s debate on a
short-term economic stimulus package,
the AFL-CIO urged Congress to include
a job-creating infrastructure component,
one aimed at bridge repair and school
renovation. Bush and his allies in the
Senate nixed it.
Sweeney did not offer a comprehen-
sive plan himself, but said a good start
would be bipartisan legislation pending
in Congress – now marooned in the
House Banking Committee – to “estab-
lish a National Infrastructure Bank to fi-
nance substantial infrastructure projects
with public and private capital, above
Zip
The war in Iraq will be five years
old this month, and anti-war groups,
with the support of labor organiza-
tions, are planning protest rallies
around the country. In Portland, a
march and rally is planned for March
15, starting at 2 p.m. at the South Park
Blocks.
Oregon AFL-CIO president Tom
Chamberlain will speak at the Port-
land rally, along with Barbara Dudley,
co-chair of the labor-backed Oregon
Working Families Party; Andrea
Cano, director of the Oregon Farm
Labor Ministry; plus an Iraqi national,
an Iraqi war veteran, and the father of
Ehren Watada, a U.S. Army lieutenant
who refused deployment to Iraq.
The event has the endorsement of
AFSCME Local 88, ILWU Local 5,
Portland Jobs with Justice, and the
Oregon AFL-CIO.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
and beyond existing grants and ear-
marks.”
“The central idea behind such an ap-
proach is the financing would be guar-
anteed by our government,” Sweeney
said. “We’d be asking government, busi-
ness, labor and individuals to invest in
America, and in this time of economic
uncertainty and national division, that
would be a percentage play for all of
us.”
At both the Portland and New York
gatherings, similar information was
shared with participants. For example:
• The American Society of Civil En-
gineers estimates it will take $1.6 trillion
over five years to bring roads, rails,
bridges, waterways, transit systems and
other infrastructure components in to
“good condition.”
• A National Surface Transportation
Policy and Revenue Study calculates
that it will take $225 billion annually
just to maintain the existing transporta-
tion system over the next 50 years.
• The Congressional Budget Office
predicts a $5 billion shortfall in the
Highway Trust Fund by 2009, disrupt-
ing projects in all 50 states.
• By 2020, every major U.S. con-
tainer port is projected to double its de-
signed capacity. Some West Coast ports
will quadruple.
There are 72,000 miles of sewer and
water pipes that are over 80 years old.
“The infrastructure we built for the
previous century is obsolete,” Blume-
nauer said in Portland. “Today, we have
a unique opportunity to rebuild our com-
munities in ways that meet our environ-
mental and energy challenges while re-
vitalizing the economy.”
Grocery-meat workers
wrap up more contracts
Members of United Food and
Commercial Workers Local 555 rati-
fied several more contracts last month
on the heels of a ratification vote in
Eugene-Springfield after more than a
year of bargaining.
In February, Salem, Corvallis, Al-
bany, Sweet Home, Lebanon, and
Newport all settled contracts. Support
has averaged around 92 percent.
Local 555 represents more than
1,100 workers at Safeway, Albertsons
and Fred Meyer stores in these areas.
Key provisions in the contracts are
identical to those in Eugene-Spring-
field, with union wokers winning
hard-money wage increases (not
bonuses in lieu of wages, as employ-
ers initially tried to get). Wages will
increase $1.30 an hour over the life of
the agreement, retroactive to Febru-
ary 2007. There will be no health re-
imbursement accounts (which would
have resulted in large increases in de-
ductibles), and employees may vol-
unteer to work Christmas Day, but
can’t be scheduled to work.
Ratification votes are scheduled
this month in Vancouver, Wash.,
Medford, Roseburg, Coos Bay and
Brookings.
Contracts in The Dalles and Hood
River expire May 31. Contracts ex-
pire in Portland, Bend, and Newport
July 26.
Portland Public School
bus drivers ratify contract
Union school bus drivers at Portland Public Schools ratified a new union con-
tract Feb. 29, after more than two years of working without a contract. The group
of 85 workers drive buses for special education students, and are represented by
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757.
The new contract runs through June 30, 2010 and is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2006.
Drivers will get annual raises of 2.5 percent, including retroactive pay back to last
July, and a flat $625 for the 18 months before that. Under the previous contract,
driver pay started at $12.69 and rose to $16.51 after 10 years.
The new contract also raises the district’s capped contribution to health cover-
age by 6 percent a year starting Oct. 1. That’s also when the new statewide school
district employee health insurance pool comes into being, so there may be some re-
duction in the cost of coverage.
Under the new deal, the union agreed to give up employer-paid retiree health
coverage after 2014. Currently the district pays for it for to five years or until the re-
tiree is eligible for Medicare.
“[The new contract] was quite a bit better than the one we turned down,” said
Randy Shaw, a PPS driver and member of the union’s Executive Board. “But a lot
of the drivers still wanted to turn it down,” Shaw said.
In the end, Shaw said, members voted to approve it by a two-to-one margin, and
almost every member in the unit voted.
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